9/2/2017 Control Tutorials for MATLAB and Simulink - Extras: Converting Between System Representations

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INTRODUCTION CRUISE CONTROL MOTOR SPEED

SYSTEM

MODELING Extras: Converting Between System

ANALYSIS Representations

Key MATLAB Commands used in this tutorial are: tf , ssdata

CONTROL

PID
Contents
ROOT LOCUS
System variable conversions
FREQUENCY
State-Space to Transfer Function

STATE-SPACE Zeros at Infinity

Transfer Function to State-Space

DIGITAL
State-Space to Zero/Pole and Transfer Function to Zero/Pole:

Pole/Zero to State-Space and Pole/Zero to Transfer Function

SIMULINK

MODELING A dynamic system is most commonly described in one of three ways:

CONTROL 1. By a set of state-space equations and the corresponding matrices

2. By a transfer function using the symbolic s variable or numerator and

denominator polynomials

3. By a list of poles and zeros and the associated gain

From time to time, it is useful to convert between these various

representations. MATLAB can do these conversions quickly and easily.

In addition, beginning with version 5.0, MATLAB has the ability to represent

systems in a generic sense in a system variable. System variables are used

independently of the original system notation, and it is easy to both store a

system variable from any representation and to extract any of the three

system representations from a system variable.

System variable conversions

Suppose you have a transfer function of the form

(1)

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This can be represented in state space form with the following commands:

s = tf('s');

G = (2*s+1)/(4*s^2+3*s+2)

G =

2 s + 1

---------------

4 s^2 + 3 s + 2

Continuous-time transfer function.

or equivalently by assigning the numerator and denominator coefficient

vectors as follows:

num = [2 1];

den = [4 3 2];

G = tf(num,den)

G =

2 s + 1

---------------

4 s^2 + 3 s + 2

Continuous-time transfer function.

A state-space model can be extracted from the system variable G with the

following command:

[A,B,C,D] = ssdata(G)

A =

-0.7500 -0.5000

1.0000 0

B =

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C =

0.5000 0.2500

D =

This state-space representation can be stored in another (equivalent)

system variable, H, with the following commands which returns the following

output showing the relationships between the state, input, and output

variables

H = ss(A,B,C,D)

H =

a =

x1 x2

x1 -0.75 -0.5

x2 1 0

b =

u1

x1 1

x2 0

c =

x1 x2

y1 0.5 0.25

d =
u1

y1 0

Continuous-time state-space model.

To extract a zero-pole-gain model from this system variable, you enter the
following command

[z,p,k] = zpkdata(H,'v')

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z =
-0.5000

p =
-0.3750 + 0.5995i

-0.3750 - 0.5995i
k =

0.5000

The 'v' causes the function to return a vectorized version of the zeros and
poles, which is useful for SISO systems.

We can now form another system variable, K, from this zpk representation

with the following command

K = zpk(z,p,k)

K =

0.5 (s+0.5)

-------------------
(s^2 + 0.75s + 0.5)

Continuous-time zero/pole/gain model.

Finally, given this system variable, we can extract a transfer function

representation with the following command

[num,den] = tfdata(K,'v')

num =
0 0.5000 0.2500

den =
1.0000 0.7500 0.5000

(Again, the 'v' is useful for SISO systems.) This returns the following

transfer function representation which is equal to the original transfer

function before all the conversions (although both the numerator and

denominator are scaled by a factor of 4)

State-Space to Transfer Function

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In addition to using system variab to convert between representations, you

can convert between representations directly.

Suppose you have a set of state-space equations and you would like to
convert them to the equivalent transfer function. This is done using the

command

[num,den] = ss2tf(A,B,C,D)

num =

0 0.5000 0.2500
den =

1.0000 0.7500 0.5000

For example, suppose you had the following set of state equations:

(2)

(3)

with

m = 100 kg

b = 50 Ns/m

u = 500 N

If you want to change this to a transfer function, just run the following m-file:

A = [0 1
0 -0.05];

B = [0;
0.001];

C = [0 1];

D = 0;

[num,den]=ss2tf(A,B,C,D)

num =

1.0e-03 *

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0 1.0000 0
den =

1.0000 0.0500 0

Here are some notes about ss2tf:

The numerator, num, will have as many rows as there are outputs (or
rows in the matrix C).

The numerator and denominator are returned in descending powers of

s

Care must be taken to check the numerator and denominator, as zeros

at infinity may produce erroneous transfer functions.

Zeros at Infinity

This last point needs some further explanation. We say that a system has
zeros at infinity if the limit as s->infinity of the value of the transfer function

is equal to zero; this happens whenever you have more poles than zeros.

You will see this in the root locus plot as asymptotes which go to infinity (the

number of asymptotes is equal to the number of zeros at infinity). MATLAB

sometimes computes these zeros at infinity as being large finite

numbers.When this happens, some of the coefficients in the numerator that

are supposed to be zero end up being very small numbers. It may not seem

like a big deal, but it can cause errors when trying to use the transfer
function later on. You should always check your transfer function, and if

numbers that are 0.0000 show up that are supposed to be zero, rewrite the

numerator into MATLAB to compensate.

A good example follows:

A = [0 1 0 0

0 -0.1818 2.6727 0

0 0 0 1

0 -4.545 31.1818 0];

B = [0

1.8182

0
4.5455];

C = [1 0 0 0

0 0 1 0];

D = [0

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0];

[num,den]=ss2tf(A,B,C,D)

num =

0 0 1.8182 -0.0000 -44.5460

0 0 4.5455 -7.4373 -0.0000

den =
1.0000 0.1818 -31.1818 6.4786 0

If you look at the numerator, the first and last element of each row are 0,

while the second and fourth element in each row are 0.0000. If you look
closer at each of these elements, you will find that they are not zero, but in

fact some very small number. To see this, enter any of the following

commands into the MATLAB command window: num(1,2), num(1,4),

num(2,2) or num(2,4). You should get something similar to the following as

an answer: 7.1054e-15, -6.2172e-15, 1.2434e-14, or 4.4409e-15. Look at

the roots of the numerator polynomials using roots(num(1,:)) and you will

see the roots of the numerator which are almost at infinity but not quite.

This numerical inconsistency can be eliminated by adding the following line

after the ss2tf command to get rid of the numbers that are not supposed to

be there:

num = [num(1,3) 0 num(1,5)

num(2,3) 0 num(2,5)];

Now all of the small numbers have been replaced with zeros. Always make
sure to look at your transfer function and understand what it means before

you use it in the design process.

Transfer Function to State-Space

The reverse of the command ss2tf is the tf2ss command, which converts a

transfer function of a system into state-space form. The command is issued

like this:

[A,B,C,D] = tf2ss(num,den)

A =
-0.1818 31.1818 -6.4786 0

1.0000 0 0 0

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0 1.0000 0 0

0 0 1.0000 0

B =
1

0
C =

0 1.8182 0 -44.5460

0 4.5455 0 -0.0000

D =
0

One important fact to note is that although there is only one transfer

function that describes a system, you can have multiple state-space

equations that describe a system. The tf2ss command returns the state-

space matrices in control canonical form. Therefore, if you take a set of

state-space equations, convert them into a transfer function, and then

convert it back, you will not have the same set of state-space equations you

started with unless you started with matrices in control canonical form.

As an example, take the numerator and denominator created above and

convert it back to state-space. This can be done with the following MATLAB

code:

[A,B,C,D] = tf2ss(num,den)

A =

-0.1818 31.1818 -6.4786 0

1.0000 0 0 0

0 1.0000 0 0

0 0 1.0000 0

B =
1

0
C =

0 1.8182 0 -44.5460

0 4.5455 0 -0.0000

D =

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This is obviously not the same set of matrices that were initially used, but

the input-output behavior of this system is the same as that of the previous

one. There are infinitely many ways to represent a given transfer function in
state-space form; MATLAB chooses the control canonical form. The states

will not have the same meaning as they originally did.

State-Space to Zero/Pole and Transfer Function to

Zero/Pole:

There is also a third way to represent a dynamic system, and that is the

pole-zero model. This model is basically the same as the transfer function
model, except that the polynomials have been factored so the poles are all

in the denominator and the zeros are in the numerator. The basic format

looks like the following:

(4)

Remember that for a proper transfer function, the number of poles n is

greater than or equal to the number of zeros m. MATLAB can make the
transformations from either state-space or transfer function to the pole-zero

representation. The commands to get the system into zero-pole form are:

[z,p,k] = tf2zp(num,den)

z =

4.9498 0.0000
-4.9498 -0.0000

p =

-5.7753
5.3851

0.2083

k =

1.8182
4.5455

if you have a transfer function, and:

[z,p,k] = ss2zp(A,B,C,D)

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z =
4.9498 0.0000

-4.9498 -0.0000

p =

0
-5.7753

5.3851

0.2083

k =
1.8182

4.5455

if you have a state-space model

Both of these commands should return three variab: z, p, k. The variable z

returns all of the zeros in columns. There should be one column for every

row in the transfer function numerator or every output, y (rows in the C

matrix). The variable p returns all of the poles in a column. The variable k

returns a column of gain values. The column should have as many rows as

numerator rows or outputs, y. For example, using t he state space model

and transfer function above, enter either of the following m-files:

num = [1.8182 0 -44.5460;

4.5455 -7.4373 0];

den = [1 0.1818 -31.1818 6.4786 0];

[z,p,k] = tf2zp(num,den)

z =

4.9498 0

-4.9498 1.6362

p =
0

-5.7753

5.3851

0.2083
k =

1.8182

4.5455

or

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A = [0 1 0 0

0 -0.1818 2.6727 0

0 0 0 1
0 -4.545 31.1818 0];

B = [0

1.8182
0

4.5455];

C = [1 0 0 0
0 0 1 0];

D = [0

0];

[z,p,k] = ss2zp(A,B,C,D)

z =

4.9498 1.6362

-4.9498 -0.0000

p =
0

-5.7753

0.2083

5.3851

k =

1.8182

4.5455

There are two columns of zeros, and therefore the k matrix has two rows

(one for each z column).

Pole/Zero to State-Space and Pole/Zero to Transfer

Function

As you may have already guessed, if you have a system described by the

pole-zero method, you can convert that to either the state-space model or
the transfer function. To get the state-space model, enter the following

command:

[A,B,C,D] = zp2ss(z,p,k)

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A =

-0.1818 31.1818 -6.4786 0

1.0000 0 0 0
0 1.0000 0 0

0 0 1.0000 0

B =

0
C =

0 1.8182 -0.0000 -44.5460

0 4.5455 -7.4373 -0.0000

D =

Again, it is important to note that more than one set of state-space matrices

can describe a system. The state-space matrices returned from this

command are also in control canonical form. For example, take the z, p,

and k matrices you just created and convert them back to state-space:

[A,B,C,D] = zp2ss(z,p,k)

A =
-0.1818 31.1818 -6.4786 0

1.0000 0 0 0

0 1.0000 0 0

0 0 1.0000 0

B =

0
0

C =

0 1.8182 -0.0000 -44.5460

0 4.5455 -7.4373 -0.0000

D =

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Again, it is important to note that more than one set of state-space matrices

can describe a system. The state-space matrices returned from this

command are also in control canonical form

You will recognize this as the same set of matrices you got using the

command, tf2ss.

To get a system described by a pole-zero model into a transfer function

model, use the following command:

[num,den] = zp2tf(z,p,k)

num =

0 0 1.8182 -0.0000 -44.5460

0 0 4.5455 -7.4373 -0.0000

den =

1.0000 0.1818 -31.1818 6.4786 0

You will recognize this as the same transfer function we started out with.

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